Joomla! site syndication http://quixoticdragon.com 2010-03-10T20:03:08+01:00 http://quixoticdragon.com http://quixoticdragon.com/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png text/html 2008-02-07T22:42:35+01:00 http://quixoticdragon.com http://quixoticdragon.com/content/view/75/45/ Straight from the Iwata-Medea website comes the Eclipse HP-CS. A siphon fed, dual action, internal mix airbrush. A couple of disclosures here. I used to work for IwataThe joy of not working directly for them means I can say whatever I want.On the other hand I still do some writing for them.I've never used another brand, so I'll refrain from brand to brand comparisons. Of all of Iwata's airbrushes the Eclipse is, by far, one of their top sellers. And there's some excellent reasons why. It's forgiving of user errors. Specifically, it's very forgiving of paint consistency mistakes.It's got the ability to do most of the fine details you need to get most jobs done.The background spray pattern is reasonably large. Now, it ain't a spraygun but you can get some decently sized patterns out of it.It cleans up easily. No airbrush is really easy, but the self-centering nozzle just falls out. Sweet!Replacement parts are inexpensive. Nothing Iwata makes is cheap, so don't expect the parts to go for a song, but compared to the other airbrush lines Eclipse airbrush parts are not hard on your wallet. I've recommended Eclipse airbrushes to beginners and pros alike without any guilt, because these airbrushes are in the butter zone of workhorse airbrushes. Now on to the specifics of the HP-CS. It’s gravity-fed. This means it’s great for uses where you want to spray small amounts of paint. You can spray a single drop of paint if you’re so inclined. You can mix colors in the cup. You can practice with small amounts of paint. Since airbrush paint can be expensive gravity-fed airbrushes are economical. If I was selling you these things I’d probably tack on how environmentally friendly they are compared to siphon-fed airbrushes, but let’s face it. Spraying paint just doesn’t get environmentally friendly. It gets ‘friendlier’ or becomes ‘containable’ but never really becomes friendly. Also, this is it. The Eclipse CS. When in doubt, when you don’t have a compelling reason to use something else, begin with this airbrush. This airbrush is my personal baseline that I compare everything else to. Internal Links How to Rinse a Gravity-Fed Airbrush Between Colors (content/view/45/45/) How to Rinse a Gravity-Fed Airbrush After a Spray Session (content/view/44/45/) How to Clean an Eclipse Gravity-Fed Airbrush (content/view/39/45/) External Links HP-CS Overview (http://www.iwata-medea.com/products/airbrush/eclipse/hpcs_info.jsp) HP-CS Specs (http://www.iwata-medea.com/products/airbrush/eclipse/hpcs_specs.jsp) HP-CS Usage Chart (http://www.iwata-medea.com/products/airbrush/eclipse/hpcs_usage.jsp) Eclipse Manual (http://www.iwata-medea.com/support/EclipsePartsGuide.pdf) in pdf format (don't be fooled by it saying Parts Guide on their site it really is the manual, kind've a big download too) text/html 2008-02-06T22:37:06+01:00 http://quixoticdragon.com http://quixoticdragon.com/content/view/74/45/ Straight from the Iwata-Medea website comes the Eclipse HP-BCS. A siphon fed, dual action, internal mix airbrush. A couple of disclosures here. I used to work for IwataThe joy of not working directly for them means I can say whatever I want.On the other hand I still do some writing for them. I've never used another brand, so I'll refrain from brand to brand comparisons.Of all of Iwata's airbrushes the Eclipse is, by far, one of their top sellers. And there's some excellent reasons why.It's forgiving of user errors. Specifically, it's very forgiving of paint consistency mistakes.It's got the ability to do most of the fine details you need to get most jobs done.The background spray pattern is reasonably large. Now, it ain't a spraygun but you can get somedecently sized patterns out of it.It cleans up easily. No airbrush is really easy, but the self-centring nozzle just falls out. Sweet!Replacement parts are inexpensive. Nothing Iwata makes is cheap, so don't expect the parts to go for a song, but compared to the other airbrush lines Eclipse airbrush partsare not hard on your wallet.I've recommended Eclipse airbrushes to beginers and pros alike without any guilt, because these airbrushes are in the butter zone of workhorse airbrushes.Now on to the specifics of an HP-BCS.It's siphon-fed. This means it's great for uses where you want to spray a lot of paint. i.e. T-Shirt painting, spraying backgrounds. A lot of people get introduced to airbrushing and choose a siphon-fed model becausethey can range roughly $20 less than a gravity or side-fed configuration. Don't be fooled by the discount. Bottles still cost something and siphon-fed airbrushes love a lot of bottles! In fact my equation is however many colors you have plus one for the cleaning solution.Internal LinksHow to Rinse a Siphon-Fed Airbrush Between Colors (content/view/47/58/)How to Rinse a Siphon-Fed Airbrush After a Spray Session (content/view/46/58/) How to Clean an Eclipse Siphon-Fed Airbrush (content/view/40/58/) External LinksHP-BCS Overview (http://www.iwata-medea.com/products/airbrush/eclipse/hpbcs_info.jsp) HP-BCS Specs (http://www.iwata-medea.com/products/airbrush/eclipse/hpbcs_specs.jsp) HP-BCS Usage Chart (http://www.iwata-medea.com/products/airbrush/eclipse/hpbcs_usage.jsp) Eclipse Manual (http://www.iwata-medea.com/support/EclipsePartsGuide.pdf) in pdf format (don't be fooled by it saying Parts Guide on their site it really is the manual, kind've a big download too) Eclipse BCS Thorough Cleaning Guide (http://www.iwata-medea.com/resources/clean_eclipse_bcs.jsp) (This is my cleaning guide from above only with pictures) text/html 2008-02-06T20:43:05+01:00 http://quixoticdragon.com http://quixoticdragon.com/content/view/73/106/ Apparently I'm getting some random traffic. With my burn out fading a bit I think I'm willing to take some user input on which way the site should move. Here are some ideas to get you started.What do you really want to know about spraying?What's most relevant to you?Which sections of the knowledge base would you like to see getting filled out first?I've included a link to the contact me section so you can give me some feed back (component/option,com_contact/Itemid,3/) . Perhaps in the future I'll turn on user comments. I wonder if this server program even has a comments module! hmmm. text/html 2008-02-06T18:14:41+01:00 http://quixoticdragon.com http://quixoticdragon.com/content/view/72/106/ I can feel the excitement starting to build once again. I've been in the middle of some projects for Iwata-Medea (www.iwata-medea.com). It's been awhile since I've been inspired to write new things. For awhile it was just all the old stuff that got cut and pasted into an email or forum post. But now I see some of the tell-tale signs that I'm gearing up for some writing and creative thinking ahead. There are good things in the works. Very good things. text/html 2008-01-16T23:51:37+01:00 http://quixoticdragon.com http://quixoticdragon.com/content/view/71/106/ I'm going through a little burn out helping people. There are broken links everywhere and places that need much, much work done in order to bring them up to where I envision this website going. For now, there really isn't any traffic to this website so I don't think I'm really hurting anyone. Before I go though, I will setup the contact form and a valid email address to reach me at. Just in case you've stumbled upon this site and I've managed to revive some of the passion for the industry.